The Great Cycle is nothing more than the 25,920 year Precessional Cycle, whereby the north pointing pole of planet Earth’s axis of rotation describes a great circle in the heavens -- with the “pole star” shifting from Polaris to Vega to Alpha Draconis and all the space in between.Astronomy is well aware of the cycle, but ascribes little significance to it.

Others, however, think of The Great Cycle in terms of The Great Goddess.In this version,there are construed to be eight principal phases, corresponding to the enormously shorter lunar cycle of some 29 and a half days (the “month”).These eight phases of The Great Cycle -- as well as a very brief description of their meaning and timing in terms of the ages (as in the Age of Pisces) -- are:

(1) New Moon -- initiating and projecting a seed impulse not yet seen, a dark dawning (Age of Aquarius and half of the Age of Capricorn),

(2) Crescent -- first glimpses of a new vision against the old inertia, light quickening (half of the Age of Capricorn and all of the Age of Sagittarius),

(3)First Quarter -- rooting, taking action, building a vehicle, light and dark in balance, light ascending (the Age of Scorpio and half of the Age of Libra),

(4) Gibbous -- budding, revelation and dominance, light dominant (half of the Age of Libra and all of the Age of Virgo),

(5) Full Moon -- meaning of the life purpose revealed, flowering, light peaking (the Age of Leo and half of the Age of Cancer)*,

(6) Disseminating -- fulfilling purpose, fruits of the cycle, first stirring of dark (half of the Age of Cancer and all of the Age of Gemini**),

(7) Last Quarter -- ending of old patterns and dying forms, diminishing and becoming compost, light and dark in balance, dark gaining (the Age of Taurus and half of the Age of Aries),

(8) Balsamic -- distilling and concentrating cyclical wisdom into seeds of future vision, depth of dark (half of the Age of Aries and all of the Age of Pisces).

*The Gibbous and Full Moon phases (4 and 5) correspond to the Magdalenian period of the late Upper Paleolithic -- a golden age, attested to by the richness and diversity of remarkable art forms in prehistoric art (80% of all known Upper Paleolithic art), particularly art that honored the Great Goddess.

** “Gemini” has the fundamental definition of “disseminating the meaning”.

Robert Graves dates the legend of Perseus beheading Medusa to the final overthrow of the goddesses’ chief shrines by the Hellenes, and when Perseus “stripped her priestesses of their Gordon masks,” the latter having been worn to frighten away the profane.“That is to say, there occurred in the early thirteenth century B.C.E. an actual historic rupture, a sort of sociological trauma, which has been registered in this myth.” This corresponds to the middle of the Age of Aries and the beginning of Balsamic phase of The Great Cycle.

These phases are shown in the below figure.

It is noteworthy that we are currently living in the Balsamic Phase, also known as the

Dark of the Moon -- the latter phrase having derived from the last three days of the lunar monthly cycle, just prior to the New Moon, and when the night is exceptionally dark.

That’s the bad news.The good news is that the New Moon phase is slated to commence on December 21, 2012 A.D..(Of course, the Goddess may be fashionably late -- if only to pick out just the right thing to wear.Thus we may be looking at 2013, say March 11th, the Spring Equinox, or perhaps more likely, May 1st (aka Beltane).About 10:30 am.

Okay, so maybe not quite that precise.But then again, if the theory of Time Wave is to be believed...